September 15, 2006

light bulb moment

light bulb moment — A light bulb moment is when you have a sudden realisation about something, like the light bulb used to indicate an idea in cartoons [UsingEnglish] [also see urbandict]

This news reports a potent idea of using natural gas pipes for broadband service. An American friend told me that a company in his hometown had already done something similar — by laying optical fibres within the gas pipes. But the cost is high. The new idea in the article exploits the “negligence” of the US federal regulation on radio signals UNDER the ground, and adopts wireless ultra-wideband (UWB) transmissions. The inventor hatched this idea at the “light bulb on the head moment“, according to the article.